Cold War Origins (1943-1949)
This "Grand Alliance" formed in 1941 for the singular purpose of defeating common enemy.
This U.S. theory warned that if Vietnam fell to communism, the rest of Southeast Asia would follow like a row of toppling blocks.
What is the Domino Theory?
Winston Churchill famously used this phrase in 1946 to describe the ideological and physical divide separating Eastern and Western Europe.
What is the Iron Curtain?
This Soviet leader sought to protect his country after WWII by establishing a "security belt" of satellite states in Eastern Europe.
Who was Joseph Stalin?
Ronald Reagan famously used this two-word movie-inspired phrase in a 1983 speech to describe the Soviet Union.
What is the "Evil Empire"?
This 1947 U.S. policy offered military and financial aid to countries like Greece and Turkey to stop the spread of communism.
What is the Truman Doctrine?
This specific line of latitude served as the temporary demarcation line between North and South Vietnam following the 1954 Geneva Accords.
What is the 17th Parallel?
This 13-day October standoff in 1962 is widely considered the closest the superpowers ever came to direct nuclear conflict.
What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?
This U.S. President presided over the start of the Cold War and committed the U.S. to a long-term global policy of containment.
Who was Harry Truman?
Reagan’s proposed space-based shield, meant to shoot down incoming nuclear missiles, was officially called the SDI but nicknamed this.
What is "Star Wars"?
At this February 1945 conference, the "Big Three" agreed to divide Germany and Berlin into four occupation zones.
What is the Yalta Conference?
North Vietnamese forces used this complex network of paths through neutral Laos and Cambodia to supply their allies in the South.
What is the Ho Chi Minh Trail?
This military acronym describes the Entrenched Cold War concept where neither side would start a war because it guaranteed the total destruction of both.
What is MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction)?
This Soviet leader followed Stalin and introduced the policy of "Peaceful Coexistence" to avoid nuclear war while competing with the West.
Who was Nikita Khrushchev?
Led by Lech Walesa, this independent trade union in Poland became the first mass movement to successfully challenge communist rule in the 1980s.
What was Solidarity?
This massive 1948 humanitarian operation was the Western response to Stalin’s attempt to starve West Berlin into submission
What was the Berlin Airlift?
This 1968 series of surprise attacks by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army proved that the war was far from over, shattering U.S. public support.
What was the Tet Offensive?
Tensions between these two communist giants peaked in 1969 with border clashes, following Mao's criticism of the USSR for being "soft on capitalism".
Who are China and the Soviet Union (Sino-Soviet Split)?
This U.S. President utilized "triangular diplomacy" by visiting Beijing in 1972 to gain leverage over the Soviet Union.
Who was Richard Nixon?
This 1987 treaty signed by Reagan and Gorbachev was the first to actually eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons.
What is the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) Treaty?
Sent in 1946, this 8,000-word document argued that the Soviet system was inherently expansionist and required long-term "containment".
What is the Long Telegram?
This was Richard Nixon’s policy of training South Vietnamese forces to take over combat duties so U.S. troops could withdraw.
What is Vietnamization?
This 1975 agreement, the high point of Détente, saw both sides recognize European borders and promise to respect human rights.
What are the Helsinki Accords?
To save the failing Soviet system, this leader introduced the domestic policies of Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring).
Who was Mikhail Gorbachev?
This mockingly named "Sinatra Doctrine" replaced the Brezhnev Doctrine, allowing Eastern European states to decide their own internal affairs.
What was the policy of non-intervention?